Wait a minute. So, you wouldn’t have had a problem at all if the officer had just issued your wife with a fixit ticket? But surely that would have used up just as many ‘limited police resources’ as the $58 fine you were given? There’s no difference in the amount of police time used in writing one ticket requiring you to pay money and one not requiring you to.
So it’s not really about limited police resources and real criminals at all, it’s about the $58.
OK so I burgled your house !
But theres people out there who have committed murder.
Why are you arresting me ?
Sorry me old mate but if you’ve broken the law you’re going to get done.
It sounds like you’re happy for other people to pay the price but because you consider yourself a good person you should some how be exempt from obeying the law.
All laws apply to all people,not just serious crimes and not just applicable to the the dregs of society.
So yes that means that even you have to obey the law.
Bolding mine
I’d just like to say that getting shot at is no fun at all. It’s really scary, causes me to run really fast, and scream for help. I’ve never been hit, but caring for those who have, it seems like even less fun.
I wouldn’t wish upon anyone to get shot at, even cops. It seems kinda dickish to nonchalantly toss around something like that.
Back to the OP – quit yer bitching. Something was broken on the car, and your wife was reminded with a monetary sum to fix it. She did, so it seemed to work.
That, and it was because his wife was coming home from church, which means that she shouldn’t get a ticket.
Sorry, if you can’t notice that you’ve got a headlight out I think you’r not observant enough to be able to drive a car. I think that assholes who blame the cop who cited them are stupid.
Remind me to triple-check all of my lights if I should ever come to Florida.
Here, you get a warning ticket that gives you 5 days to fix the problem and take the car to the nearest police station for inspection. No fines unless you miss the 5 day deadline.
And this is inconsistent with the rest of his comments how?
Goddamn. I hate people who do that. They think they are so fucking important that they shouldn’t have to wait in traffic with the rest of us, not to mention the fact that they make the situation worse, and more dangerous, when they try to force their way back into traffic further up the road. I’m not a violent person or I would agree to it being a hanging offense, but I do wish for karma to catch those bastards when they do that. Sounds like karma took it way too easy on her.
That’s a good point. In fact, the OP should be happy that the traffic fines are partially compensating the police for the cost of traffic enforcement. This frees up more of the taxpayers’ money to go after the drug dealers.
Plus, unless the OP’s wife was the subject of an investigation, I suspect the cop was either driving around or parked looking for speeders when he pulled her over. I rather suspect that if he was on his way to a drug bust it wouldn’t matter.
As for revenue: I once asked if it were possible to get a cop around our high school to give tickets to the maniac parents who endanger the kids. I discovered that in California a lot of this revenue goes to the state, so there is no real incentive to write tickets for revenue. This might explain the paucity of cops on the road and the plethora of maniacs I have to deal with on my way to work.
And, for an anecdote, I know someone who was busted for drugs when pulled over for a minor violation. They were in her glove compartment, and fell out when she went to get her insurance card and registration. (Yes, she is a moron.) The brush with the law will probably do her good. I know of cases where far more serious offenders got caught at stops.
I was once stuck in traffic and saw about a half-dozen of these idiots pass on the shoulder. Fifteen minutes later, I came around a bend in the highway, and saw the patrol car parked on the shoulder, with a half-dozen idiots stuck behind him as he walked down the line, writing each and every one of them a ticket.
The sun seemed just a little bit brighter to me, the rest of that day.
You asshole. Some of those people could have been church goers!
To add to the list:
Serial killer Joel Rifkin was stopped for a minor traffic violation and the officer noticed a strange smell coming from the car’s trunk. Rifkin maintained he had been hunting and it was a deer, but the officer made him open it. It was a murdered woman.
Serial killer David Berkowitz got a minor traffic ticket in the same neighborhood where the latest “Son of Sam” killing had taken place. The police checked up on why he was there. Because he was the killer, that’s why.
Ted Bundy was stopped for a minor traffic violation and convicted of murder in Colorado. He escaped, went down to Florida, killed four more people (the last an 11 year old girl) and was stopped for a minor traffic violation. Florida put him to death. One cop observed “maybe we should send him to traffic school before sending him to the chair.”
If you want people like McVeigh, Rifkin, Verkowitz & Bundy walking around while the cops enforce “real” crimes, I do not agree with you.
So, nothing, eh? 
Yeah, and sometimes they kill people.
My area (suburbs around Washington, DC) frequently has a characteristic accident in which someone pulled over on the shoulder of the road is struck and hurt or killed by a car which “veered” onto the shoulder. I’m sure that drunks (not to mention people experiencing breech births while tripping on acid and photographing the birth with their cellphones) do veer. But I tend to doubt all these are caused by loss of control or attention span. I personally see a lot of people intentionally divert onto the shoulder and run up ahead when traffic in front of them suddenly brakes. Not all of these people are exiting 500 yards down the road either; a lot of them seem too self-important to suffer delays.
Unfortunately drivers often brake or slow down out of nervousness or curiosity when they see someone stopped on the shoulder. This creates an ugly dynamic which definitely makes me hesitate to pull over on area roads.
There was one such incident last week. It’s unclear as of yet why the person “veered” off the road, but he did hit and kill someone.
Washington Post (I think link requires registration, but is free)
Askeptic: Good job!
Sailboat
Hmm, I looked up the fines revenue for our local budget (Irvine, CA) and it is certainly there, though it is not a significant part of the city’s cash flow (our money comes from property taxes and sales taxes). I don’t know how much goes to the states. If anyone has a question about how much is collected vs. how it is spent, you can usually find your local budget on the web.
We have cops ticketing at our school regularly. They are mainly busting parents who let their kids jump out of the car and dart across traffic. They are also busting parents who block traffic for local homeowners trying to get out of the area (the usual poor design when it comes to drop-offs, etc.). The Principal warns everyone every year about this, just to keep it down. We also get cops following the school bus every couple of months to bust drivers who ignore the flashing lights.
I was going to reply to this thread, but DWC said exactly what I wanted to say and said it better.